4 Tips for Easier Online Reputation Management
It is well-known that a happy customer will only tell a couple of people about their pleasant experience with your product or service; but a dissatisfied one will spread the message to nearly a dozen.
Now this true-er than ever with the advent of online social media, where a happy consumer might leave a positive review, while an angry one will definitely leave a negative comment. All this is facing an audience of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, depending on your business; and could sway away potential customers.
Managing Your Online Reputation
What constitutes modern online reputation management? It is a mix of being on top of the latest news coverage, monitoring social media and scanning Facebook or Google reviews. Nowadays, it involves a large variety of social platforms where people may interact and review your business.
Eighty percent of firms believe they are providing a superior customer experience. However results show that customers consider only 8% of businesses deliver on their customer service promises.
Bad reviews obviously affect the sentiment surrounding your company; therefore it is important to be meticulous with your online reputation management.
You can use four simple techniques to improve your online reputation management and maintain a grip on its evolution.
1. Set up Google Alerts. You can subscribe to news that appears on Google for any subject, brand or product. This way you can manage your own image and keep an eye on your competitors or follow the latest industry trends. Set up alerts for your business’ name, your products or services and your competitors if you wish so.
2. Ask for a review. There are a lot of companies offering proper customer service, but do not get the recognition in form of reviews. The reason behind is that businesses fail to capture this value when they hesitate to ask for a review. This might stem from a fear of making the customer uncomfortable and scare them away next time. However being pro-active will yield far better results in the long term, when your business can demonstrate positive reviews from existing customers.
3. Respond to reviews. Respond to both your customers’ positive and negative reviews. Try to solve any issues that come up on a review platform, and appreciate the positive reviewers for their time. When a consumer leaves you a negative review, act patiently and reply appropriately with tact. It should not be a place for an exchange of arguments, but it’s a perfect opportunity to showcase your resolution capabilities and help a frustrated customer.
4. Automate reputation management. Once you go through the process many times and have well-defined strategy for online reputation management, try to automate it. What’s great about automation is that it will send clients a notification to review the company the moment they make a purchase.
Start viewing it from the perspective of proactively seeking feedback from your customers, rather than marginalizing or avoiding negative comments.
